Pushing Hands

What to look for when buying your hand pushers 

Greetings! 

So what do you really need to know about hand pushers? 

1. Well, first of all, in my view putting hands on is a freehand job, so buying a pusher in a frame that centres the pusher over the centre of the watch sounds like a great idea, but the reality is a bit shit as you are dealing with such small margins by the time that you get to the second hand, that you need the kind of micro adjustments that only a 'live' free-hand can deliver rather than a numb tool. 

2. You need the pusher end to be replaceable with a number of different hole sizes and one which has no hole at all (or you need a suite of actual pushers with holes of different etc…) - The reason being that:

(a) you want the hole to be large enough, relative to the hand that you are pushing on, to go over the pinions for the hands that sit above it but be stopped in its travel by the top of the pinion of the hand being pushed down - thus allowing for each hand to be seated at the very top of its own pinion. In terms of the hour hand, this is really important in preventing you pushing the hand too near to the face (and thus marking it with the hand as it turns and/or having the hands so low that they cannot be lifted with hand removers without marking the face). 

(b) for second hands and any chrono hands, these will be incredibly delicate and have a small surface area available for pushing with a closed tube hole for the pinion on the underside rather than a hole through the hand for hours and minutes. Thus you want the pusher with no hole in it and therefore no means of the pusher surface having greater pressure on the limbs of the hands which will lead to bending them very quickly. 

In both cases, with a bit of care and attention you can avoid both things happening despite having the incorrect tools, however, great tools make for an easy job.

I’ve done a couple of diagrams to illustrate what can go wrong and help illuminate what I’m trying to say here.